Search engine

[Anonymous]

I seem to catch too much with my searches- is there an advanced feature or tips like "x or y" - it seems like putting things in quotes doesn't work to capture two words together for a search.. apprecaite any help!

[jsteele]

Putting things in quotes should work. You can review this document:

http://lucene.apache.org/java/2_2_0/queryparsersyntax.html

That is documentation of the search syntax for our search engine. However, I am not confident that the JSP pages that make up the forum pass all of the relevant data to the search engine. So, I can't guarantee that all, or even any, of the syntax will actually work. If you test some of this out and find that it works, please post a follow-up and I'll add it to the FAQ.

[Anonymous]

None of my searches work. I'll type in a word I distinctly remember in a thread and the thread won't come up. Sometimes, if I go to a specific forum and type in the word it will, but most of the time no. Is it you or me?

[jsteele]

Can you give me some examples of searches that don't work. I don't always have the best of luck with the search system, but I can normally find what I want.

[Anonymous]

Okay, I just grabbed a sample thread to check for a term which would be uncommon. There was some thread on Overcrowded recently (off topic) and one of the posts mentioned G-Force. I took that term, searched, and the Overcrowded thread didn't come up. One other thread came up.

But it happens almost all the time, and since I don't hear anyone else complaining, I'm assuming it's something wrong from my side.

[jsteele]

After some investigation, I found the post in the Overcrowded thread that mentions G-Force. I was not able to find it with the search engine. I then found that that specific post is not indexed. I found that other posts in the thread were indexed. At first I couldn't find any pattern as to why some posts in the thread were indexed and why some where not. Then, I discovered that posts with multiple paragraphs were not indexed, while posts with a single paragraph were. I have no idea if the indexer is really not indexing multiple paragraph posts or if that was just a coincidence with that thread. I'll look into it further tomorrow.

[Anonymous]

OP here.. thanks PP with your example- that is what happens ot me a lot.. I can't find threads that I want to follow (I cant read this board at work).. I also get "too much" of a topic.. like "kids birthday" will get me anyhting with birthday or kid in it.. frustrating- I guess we're all spoiled with google but my experience with this serach is that it either doens't catch it or too much.. i also wish I could do it by date (since it catches so much)..

[Anonymous]

NP- I have the same issue often. Interesting about the indexing! Thanks, Jeff!

[Anonymous]

OP here- I tested some of the search logic in the doc you gave Jeff and unfortunately it doesn't work.. I was actually familiar with those approaches (+ - "" and or...) I have a very hard time finding most threads here.. and some of them I know what they contain since I started them.. anyway- hope you can help when you have a chance- it would be incredibly helpful..